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Third DUI should count as a felony

By The Denver Post Editorial Board

Posted:
01/12/2014 05:01:00 PM MST

Updated:
04/09/2014 04:56:26 PM MDT

Heather Surovik, center, hugs her sister, Amanda Koester, left, and father, Scott Koester, as friends and family gather on July 5 at Roosevelt Park in Longmont to remember Brady Surovik. Heather Surovik lost her unborn baby boy, Brady, after a drunken driver struck her vehicle at 17th Avenue and Pace Street on July 5, 2012. (Greg Lindstrom, Times-Call)

Colorado is among a handful of states that still doesn't have a "felony driving while intoxicated" law on the books.

Drunks can be caught driving five, six times or more and still face only misdemeanor charges.

It's time Colorado lawmakers address this deficiency.

State Rep. Mark Waller, R-Colorado Springs, is trying once again to convince his peers at the Capitol to make this important change to the state's criminal statutes, and we hope he is successful this time.

This year's bill would make it a class 4 felony for a third DUI within seven years, or four in a lifetime. The change is a good idea for several reasons.

First, a felony charge means a prison sentence is a possibility. And prisons offer more DUI treatment options than jails, said Waller, a former prosecutor.

Second, those who receive a probationary sentence would have an incentive to complete it so they would not be sent to prison.

Also, the threat of a felony record could act as a deterrent.

And lastly, for those who are determined to keep driving while intoxicated, a prison term will at least keep them off the road for the time in which they are incarcerated.

Waller has modified this year's bill to alleviate objections raised about last year's version of the bill.

The state's sentencing laws are complex, to say the least, and they include different classifications of crimes.

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In last year's version of the felony DUI bill, repeated drunk driving would have been a class 5 felony, but it came with mandatory sentencing requirements.

This year's version makes repeated DUIs a harsher felony, but it removes the mandatory component, appropriately leaving more flexibility with judges and prosecutors who are familiar with the details of the case.

It is time Colorado's prosecutors and courts had the right tools to deal with the habitual drunk driver who make the roads less safe for us all.

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